What are your Favorite Adventure Books?

MtnClimber | February 5, 2010 | Vanity

[MtnClimber]

Was just wondering what the favorite adventure novels are for Freepers out there. Fiction or non-fiction.

[MtnClimber]

I have to travel to New York next week. I will try to get Last of the Breed by Louis L’Amour to read on the flight!

[gardengirl]

Have fun! I’ve been thinking about a kindle type device, but I really enjoy holding a book. Still undecided, and with the busy season coming up for me, reading will be the least of my worries. LOL I’ll be lucky if I have time to breathe for the next couple of months!

[gardengirl]

Anne Macaffrey (sp) in one of the authors I was trying to think of awhile ago.

Have you read Sarum? Not really an adventure, except life in general, but it’s great!

[MtnClimber]

Never read Anne Macaffrey or Sarum :( The list keeps growing longer.

[gardengirl]

Yeah, mine too! LOL Still can’t think of the other authoress I was trying to remember, and too lazy to go through my stash and look her up. Sides, if I do, I’ll get snared by a book I haven’t read in awhile and then another and then... and it’ll be weeks before I surface again. LOL

[gardengirl]

Ever seen that Twilight Zone where the grumpy man just wants to be left alone so he can read and the world ends... and he steps on his glasses... on the library steps.

I always thought that was the saddest thing! LOL

[MtnClimber]

Ouch! I also like real books, though I have never tried a Kindle.

[Travis McGee]

All the books about and by Travis McGee.

Yeah, me too!

[hellbender]

I once attended a talk by Barry Bishop, a member of the 1st American team to climb Everest. I joined REI when Jim Whittaker was a prominent figure there: now they are just another merchant dealing in clothing and other gear. Sometime I may look up and read some of the books by Reinhold Messner. His achievements can never be surpassed.

[Mr. Lucky]

Exodus.

[MtnClimber]

I met Jim Whittaker at a slide show he was doing in Boulder. I had him autograph his autobiography “A Life on the Edge”. It has his famous quote “If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much room”. Messner is amazing. I have never met him. Another good climbing book is “Annapurna” by Maurice Herzog. I have an autographed 1st edition of it!

[MtnClimber]

There are many slide shows held at Neptune Mountaineering in Boulder, CO. Here is the current schedule:

Neptune Mountaineering Slide Shows

[Real Cynic No More]

Donald Hamilton's books, especially his westerns + his Matt Helm series

Kenneth Roberts' Northwest Passage as an historical novel can't be beat

Jules Vernes' The Mysterious Island is so much better than the movies that were made from it

Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series

John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series, but also his earlier books where he was learning the trade

One of the best series was Wilbur Smith's earlier works, and especially Birds of Preyand Monsoon

Alastair McClean's earlier books were very good adventure books, until he wrote the later ones which were obviously being written for screenplay potential, as they lacked the character development contained in his earlier works

And if Michener's Chesapeake doesn't make you want to go out and buy a sailboat and sail up the Chesapeake, something's really awry!

Current authors, Don Winslow's The Winter of Frankie Machine was really good.

Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series

Let's not forget Lee Child's Jack Reacher series

But, two of my absolute favorites are DeMille's The Gold Coast and The Gate House that really must be read in sequence

[MtnClimber]

Do you have any favorite adventure novels outside your own? I am guessing from your screen name you may be a fan of the authoe John D McDonald.

[real saxophonist]

Theodore Roosevelt wrote a lot of interesting books, most of which could be considered advanture.

Peter Hathaway Capstick is another interesting author.

[hellbender]

I think I read Annapurna many years ago. All I now remember is the part about the aftermath of his frostbite, in which maggots were part of the treatment. Sounds revolting, but the bugs really are useful in situations like that.

[MtnClimber]

I believe “Death in the Tall Grass” is Capstick’s most well known book. I have not read it, but it is on my list. I have a first edition of “Through the Dark Continent” by Stanley of Stanley and Livingston fame. It is a large two-volume set and contains all the maps that are held in pockets inside the covers. I have not read it yet and will need to use great care. I just looked and they were printed in 1878 and the Volume 1 has an inscription where they were given to someone for Christmas in 1929.

[CaptRon]

There’s something you don’t hear every day.p>

Congrats for sittin through it.

[gardengirl]

Andre Norton! And no, I couldn’t remember it—had to look it up! Brain is swiss cheese, and the holes get larger every day!

[MtnClimber]

The Capstick title should be “Death in the Long Grass”.